Before Moonlight and the 2nd Anniversary Update I'm sure many cookie runners remember the crappy Prophet cookie update. Prophet cookie is a fortune cookie flavored cookie from ovenbreak.
The update cookie's skill was just recycled cookie skills, the event gacha was recycling Twizzly Gummy's gacha, and I remember people saying they were scared this quality would continue for future updates
The opposite is true. Prophet Cookie came out right before Moonlight's update- a whole lot was released with Moonlight's update. 2 new cookies, decors, new game mechanics, a whole new episode, a new major event, and a lot of cutscenes
Prophet cookie was just filler between the New Years Update and the Moonlight Update.
The Devs needed to save money for the big budget update so they brought a simply-designed OB cookie, copy-pasted skills and mechanics and rushed it out so the rest of the team could make sure the Anniversary was amazing.
The 5th Ovenbreak update recieved a lot of hate earlier because of Raid Run so the devs may have felt more pressure to deliever higher quality for all there games in general.
The moral of the story is if a crappy update is released before the game anniversary, rejoice because they we're saving money for something BIG